Cape Town hike trail - Mybergh's Ravine, in retrospect, was a foolhardy outing with a party that included both a 3 year old and 4 year old...

... but then maybe you only remember that your kids can't follow instructions and have no sense of danger when you're forcibly reminded in life-threatening circumstances ;o)

For detailed hiking information this walk is part of the Suikerbossie Circuit -- Best walks in the Cape Peninsula

Disa season - good time to climb

February is disa flowering season. These delicate (endangered) orchids thrive in certain deep kloofs on Table Mountain and are well worth a visit. Of course, conservation rules apply - take only photographs, leave only footprints - no damage to the environment please.

This outing proved to be even more worthwhile than expected - as one member of the party commented "It's the first time I've seen a disa without binoculars!"

And that certainly was the case. For once we were looking at disas in profusion, close enough to inspect the delicate markings deep in their throats. A far cry from making out a distant spot of scarlet high on a sheer, fern-clad cliff!

It was an incredibly hot afternoon but the climb was mostly through dense indigenous forest deep in the ravine. The children climbed like stars, stomping up giant rocky 'steps' in the dry watercourse.

I took this ethereal photo as the sun made its way tentatively through the dense canopy.

This hike/climb can be done as a circuit from near Suikerbossie Restaurant above Llandudno (see Mike's book for details). This would make for a much longer expedition and out of consideration for the young legs in our group we elected not to do that.

Instead we contented ourselves with climbing just beyond the tree canopy to sit and have our picnic supper.

The last stretch was slow and tricky because the watercourse rocks were damp and slippery and the path alongside was a precipitous scramble. This is not a route to take in wet weather - we were 5 days behind the last rainfall and it was still treacherous.

Here's our reward - the view out over Constantia Nek to the still sun-bathed Cape Flats and False Bay.

As always on a Cape Town hike trail, the climb down was as always very tough on the knees and quads - I was glad to reach the bottom finally!

Needless to say most of the kids were still capering around full of energy...

You may find the following related pages helpful:
Cape Town Things To Do
Things to Do with Kids
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